Campus Moving Toward Redevelopment
Photo via University of Dayton
Patrick Jones | Contributing Writer
A Campus Master Plan (CMP) is coming to the University of Dayton, but don’t expect to see anything coming from it for at least 13 months. Here’s what having a master plan means, and what students, faculty, and staff can expect from it.
According to the CMP site on Porches, a master plan is a “comprehensive…guide [for] the thoughtful development of our campus over the next 10-20 years.” The university, which announced the plan on Jan. 12, aims to strengthen the experience of future students and ensure all available resources are properly used. Master plans are a relatively common thing for a university to have.
UD completed its last one in 2008 and that led to renovations here and there, such as the update of Kennedy Union.
But leadership felt like it was time to roll out a long-term plan. UD’s procurement department organized and released a request for proposals and received four responses. Interdisciplinary design firm Ayers Saint Gross came out on top. It is an award-winning “firm of architects, planners, landscape architects, interior designers, graphic designers, and space analysts,” according to its website. The company has an extensive track record of executing master plans in higher education and universities similar to UD, including at Notre Dame, The Catholic University of America, and Xavier University in Cincinnati.
Rick Krysiak, vice president for Facilities Management and Planning and Auxiliary Services at UD, is one of the lead organizers of the CMP. According to Krysiak, the CMP will roll out in three stages across the next 13 months.
“We’re in the first part right now, data gathering,” he said. “The second part is going to be synthesizing that data and taking what [Ayers Saint Gross] learned and generating options…and then we’ll spend the last four months pressure testing, working with senior leadership, getting input from students, faculty, and staff, to make sure we’re heading in the right direction before the final campus master plan is finalized.”
It will be some time before any project breaks ground.
The CMP will examine all aspects of the university, from the Arcade and Hub in downtown Dayton to main campus and the student neighbourhood to more obscure locations such as Curran Place.
And don’t worry. Krysiak said, “There is a whole section dedicated to parking.”
The CMP will be funded through the school’s yearly budget. According to Krysiak, a portion of the budget is allocated to “large capital projects.” Therefore, there will be no impact on tuition. Krysiak and others hope the plan will increase the university’s value proposition through offering better benefits to future students.
Heather Parsons, alumnae and longtime faculty member at UD, said she would love to see the original, classic look of UD maintained, but the interiors updated to a modern standard. Before any new buildings are built, Parsons said she would like to see the university use its existing buildings — given Founders Hall and the Adele Center remain unused — and other buildings that remain underused. With the decrease in faculty and the increase in students per classroom, she believes the classrooms need to be larger to facilitate a better, more modern learning environment up to UD’s educational standard.
“[If we’re going] to increase the size of how many students are in each class, there’s physically no room for these students in each classroom, right? I also think that if you take [direction of] where…academia is going, [they need to be more modern],” Parsons said.
Parsons would love to see updates to Brown Street as well, to have it geared more toward students. Right now, Brown Street isn’t well-suited for students. Yes, there is a Starbucks and other good spots, but oftentimes it feels it is more for the people of Dayton than the students of Dayton.
Regan Montanus, a junior Legacy student, had a similar consensus to Parsons’.
“When I wask past St. Joseph’s Hall, the chapel, or even Heritage, I feel a deeper connection to the school knowing that these are the buildings my grandfather saw when he was a student here. I think that UD has a beautiful campus, rich in our own history, and we need to embrace that in any future plans,” Montanus said.
As a Marianist institution, UD’s literature reads that it is “committed to educating the whole person, fostering community, and serving the common good.”
Students, faculty, and staff can send questions, comments, or concerns to Ayers Saint Gross’s website, UD’s CMP webpage, and masterplan@udayton.edu. The university believes their CMP is a community effort and wants feedback from students, staff, and all other members of our community at all stages of the project.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Patrick Jones is enrolled in the Flyer News Practicum, which offers students experiential experiences in the journalism arts. The Practicum, an elective in the Department of Communication curriculum, College of Arts and Sciences, is offered fall and spring.